Transfusion Medicine/Blood Bank

The Transfusion Medicine Service supports a busy, level one trauma center, as well as active liver, cardiac, pediatric cardiac, neonatal, bone marrow transplant and hematology/oncology programs. It also supports an on site Apheresis Unit which provides therapeutic apheresis, photopheresis, and peripheral blood stem cell collection.

24 Hours a Day - 7 Days a Week As a full service blood bank transfusion medicine department, we operate 24 hours a day seven days a week. We are dedicated to providing blood and blood products according to the highest standards of patient care and to assure compliance with regulatory agencies. We also provide transfusion management support to health care providers at our institution and in the community as well as throughout Virginia. We are located on the 6th floor of the Gateway Building, at the corner of 12th and E. Marshall Street in Richmond, VA.

Testing

Testing is performed on patient samples to assure compliance with regulatory agencies through our active Quality Assurance Program. The Quality Program monitors system essentials that assure the safety, potency, and purity of blood as defined by the:

Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

In addition to routine testing, in our special studies lab we perform complete antibody identifications on patients with routine, complex, and multiple antibodies from a diverse patient population, including sickle cell and oncology patients, and patients with warm auto antibodies.

Research

The faculty members in Transfusion Medicine are engaged in several major research projects. The “Age of Blood in Children in Pediatric Intensive Care Units (ABC-PICU)” study is a large, multi-center, randomized, double-blinded control trial aimed at determining if red blood cells stored for seven or fewer days will result in improved clinical outcomes in critically ill children when compared blood issued according to standard practices, which may include blood older than seven days. In another multi-center study, we are participating in an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for “Pre-Hospital Use of Plasma for Traumatic Hemorrhage (PUPTH)”. This study involves the administration of thawed type A plasma in the pre-hospital setting for victims of poly trauma with major hemorrhage with the objectives of demonstrating that thawed plasma can be administered safely in this setting, and that such administration can improve outcomes. In addition, the apheresis unit contributed data to the NHLBI ReSTART trial, looking at the role of rituximab in the treatment of TTP. The faculty and staff in Transfusion Medicine are also involved in developing new clinical applications for cutting edge technology such as the use of DNA-based testing (genotyping) of red blood cell antigen genes to deduce detailed antigen profiles for patients that present difficult transfusion problems, such as patients who have received multiple or recent transfusions.

Transfusion Medicine has 3 abstracts selected for publication this year. These abstracts will be presented at the AABB and ASCP national meetings. Click here to view 2016 Abstracts (pdf)